Absolutely. I believe all is relative in some way, no matter how near or far. That influence sneaks into my subconscious and sheds yet another layer from the writer I'm meant to be. The other writer's style is helping to find and hone my own.

My biggest problem is reading stories written in different tenses. When I went back to do edits in my MS after reading Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles, I was horrified to discover I'd slipped into present tense for entire sections of my story without even realizing it.

It used to happen to me all the time, but I think the more I wrote, the better sense I got of my own voice. Now it only happens if the other writer's voice is super strong, or if I make the mistake of reading too much of one author all at once. (Like when I did a marathon read of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. He started to bleed into my writing because he was taking up a lot of space in my head.)

I've done that too. My current WIP has a Southern voice, so I deliberately stayed away from reading anything with a similar style--I didn't want to risk inadvertantly borrowing turns of phrase or nuances. In fact, when I'm in writing mode (MG or YA), I usually start reading adult books so that voice and plot lines don't influence my story.

I think this is a crime for everyone! How many people can say they didn't start writing like Stephenie Meyer after the success of Twilight? (And if you don't you're just lying). And you should really just become a children's book author...really.

I think my mood and the other bits of recent life I've been able to collect all reflect in my writing. Be it writing, music, movies, art, weather--pretty much anything that might've inspired me, it all ends up in the pot. At least I think that should be the case.

I've been thinking along a very similar line lately, and said in a recent blog post, "Artists are conduits. We take things in, amplify them in some way, and then spit them back out in our own fashion."

Yep, I'm guilty, too! That's why I have to read only well-written books while I write :) And I tend to slip into a horrible British accent when I'm talking with a British person, which is just so embarrassing!

I think I get this as well!!! When I read the classics (Dickens, Hardy etc) my writing gets all 18th century!! But when I read Sue Townsend for instance, I try to get all humourous!! LOL!! How weird!! I'd like to think it's cos I'm a secret empath!! LOL! Take carex

TOTALLY happens to me! I have to be careful what I read when I write, since I want the voice to be consistent. I like to read books that have a similar style to what I want the overall style of my writing to be, but I also have to be careful about a consistent voice throughout the entire thing. Sometimes if I read a book that really disrupts my voice, I'll write something else - a quick couple of pages or a chapter - to get it out of me so I can go back to the main WIP. I did the same thing with Suzanne Collins!

I like to think of reading good books spurring me to write better. And it's okay to try on other voices, but like Matthew said, don't show it to anyone important (i.e. an agent) until you've edited and refined and blended it in until it's become *your* writing and reads natural.

Writing Under The Influence. I think its happened to me a lot less recently but it used to all the time. I think its a good thing as long as you are able to maintain some sort of voice or feeling that is only yours as well.

On a side note I've heard numerous people swear that when they read Frank Herbert's DUNE they re-wrote whole passages of it without realizing it hadn't come from their own brain. Creepy.

That's good actually...as long as you read authors that write well. I think we learn a lot about writing from reading. I actually take notes on why a scene works...cropped sentences, word choice, pace? What made me like this?Like your drawing, by the way.Edge of Your Seat Romance

Definitely happens to me as well. I have a few friends with a very interesting voice... very metaphorical and dreamlike ambience to their writing. Sometimes after reading their writing, my blog posts tend to go way in that direction even though sometimes I consider myself to be more practical sounding.

We are all sponges of a sort, soaking in the facets of the world around us. I know my mood also affects my writing style. What does Victor Standish say, "Give an idiot a hammer and everything looks like a nail to him!"

This happened to me when I was younger, but my own voice is very strong at this point. For good or ill. (ahem) I also don't read fiction when I'm writing fiction. I will read nonfic - usually research - and poetry.

Someone talks about this in a writing book, perhaps Natalie Goldberg in either Writing Down the Bones or Wild Mind?

Hi! Thanks for stopping by my blog :) This infusion of writing style used to happen to me a lot but for some reason it's kind of stopped. *shrug* I am reading now more than ever so maybe my head doesn't have a chance to emulate the books I read.

Yup, yup and yup. I'm too damn permeable with these kinds of things. I quickly develop a twang of particular accents when I speak to people, and my writing style starts to change depending on what I read. It can be a paint sometimes :P

This definitely happens to me. Especially when I see a word that the author likes to use, to great effect. I start trying to find excuses to use that particular word. =)

Also, after watching things with British accents(Harry Potter, most of all), I speak in a really decent English accent for the next hour or so, until I realize what I'm doing and can no longer replicate their words with ease. It's such a let down.

Oh gosh!! I'm so glad you do that too! I'm so that guy...I try not to put a good day or so between writing and reading something I love. Can't be reading something awesome one night and the next morning go and write. Won't work. (also pick up accents too. I work for a family from South Africa and I have been asked more than a few times if I'm part of their family because I sounded a little SA on the phone...)

I'm not so bad at this... when I'm in my character's head. It's always in "their" voice....which is mine too but mostly theirs. WHen I'm reading a school essay or something though and I just read something that inspired me... it definitely affects me.

I KNOW I have done this before. I usually feel like I write better after I've just read something I really like. But, hmmm. Maybe the writing is better because I'm merely imitating the style I've just read (which was published, so obviously doing something right...)? Lately, I've been trying to just read, read, read all sorts of different books and styles in hopes that when I write, my brain will be so muddled with all that diverse writery goodness that whatever comes from me is authentically my own. We'll see...

Oh YES indeed. That's why I generally don't read in the middle of writing a WIP. Except my current WIP has dragged on so long I've broken that "rule." LOL Plus perhaps, after 14+ novels, I'm finding my voice stays a little more consistent, in general.

hi miss lydia! for sure when i get readin stuff i like lots it gets in my head goes down my arm and some of that styles get right in my hand and in what im writing. but for sure i dont never get real far away from my lenny voice. ...hugs from lenny

I agree with DL, I don't read as much, at least not works similiar to mine, when I'm writing my first draft. But I do make sure to note what I love about books I read and learn from each writer's strengths...

And yes, I start talking like those around me sometimes, too. Isn't that funny?

I think that as writers we are constantly studying different styles of writing and thus we tend to follow other people's examples. In doing so, we gradually mature as writers and take what we've learned from other styles to make our own as distinct and unique as possible.

I just think it's a natural habit for writers to do that. Too much is not good of course...if your writing reflects different styles too much, then you'll lose sight of your own style.

Happens to me, too. I remember when I was a teenager, and I had just heard a production of Ibsen's A Doll's House. It made a huge impression on me, and I (completely unintentionally) wrote a story afterward that echoed the final act, door slamming and all!

Oh most definitely. I had one book I was working on where the character talked very similarly to a friend of mine. I hadn't seen this friend for a few weeks and I no longer could write the book. Very inconvenient.

I think because as writers we spend a lot of time studying people and (at least I do) mimicking people that we end up picking up on people's traits and accents in real life too, instead of just in our writing.

I’m bad about this.I can get into the rhythm of a Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, or Tom Robbins to the point where it becomes hard to snap out of it. In fact, those three writers are basically ruined for me now. I can’t read them for plot at all. All I can do with them is to grab one of their books from the shelf, open to a random page, fall into the cadence and start writing.

Fortunately, I suck at copying another writer’s style, so no one notices…

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